Patrick Wayne remembers his dad, The Duke

While recalling life with his famous father during a recent interview with Cowboys & Indians, Patrick Wayne noted that, even though he appeared opposite The Duke in several films – most notably, The Searchers, Big Jake and The Comancheros – John Wayne seldom offered his son much in the way of acting tips.

“My father wasn’t big on advice,” Patrick says. “In fact, I would say that anything I gleaned from him, or learned from him, were lessons given by his behavior rather than what he said.”

Patrick remembers getting an invaluable opportunity to learn by example while watching his father on the set of Hondo, the gritty 1953 Western based on Louis L’Amour’s novel. By the time The Duke had to shoot a key scene in which he shoed a horse while conversing with leading lady Geraldine Page, “My dad had worked out every detail of how you actually shoe a horse – how you handle the horseshoe, how you approach the horse, all that – so he could just do it all without thinking about it, and just carry on the scene, which is the important thing. See, if you have to do something like that, but you hesitate at any time because you have to think about what you’re doing, the audience is going to know that something’s wrong. They may not be able to put their finger on it, but they’ll know something is not right.”

Unfortunately, Patrick recalls with a laugh, he had to have that lesson reinforced while acting opposite his father in The Comancheros, a 1961 Western that cast him as a Texas Ranger.

“We had shot this scene where there was a camera moving alongside me while I’m riding on a horse. And I was bouncing up and down all over the place. And it was even more exaggerated because the camera was so close up. Well, we watched the scene dailies, and my dad got kind of mad, and he told me: ‘Man, you’re going to have to learn how to ride a horse, or you’re getting out of this business.’ It was a humiliating experience.

“And so I spent a lot of time of time over the next few days on my skills. So when they shot the scene again later – I was much better.”

Patrick joins his siblings Ethan, Melinda and Marisa Wayne to pay tribute to their father in the July issue of Cowboys & Indians, on sale June 9 at fine newsstands everywhere.